Can I swap a KT133A MB with a KT266A

[Operandi]

I?m currently thinking about swapping out my MSI K7T Turbo for a KT266a based MB, Abit KR7A-Raid looks pretty nice. Now, I want to do this without doing anything drastic to Windows XP. So would this be a relatively simple procedure since they are both VIA chipsets, or are they too different?

 

[darth maul]

In the past I have migrated hard drives from system to system without problems. Windows will just look for drivers, just like a new video card, of course there are far more then a single driver. With that said, get yourself a burner and start backing up now. Then format your hard drive and reinstall fresh. In the end you will have less problems, and a faster running system if you just start fresh.

 

[Operandi]

Well I just did a format/install with WinXP a few weeks ago, so I'm not real big on the idea of doing it all over again. The only reason I'm consider getting a new MB is because I'm going to building a friend of mine a comp out of few of my components, namely my 1.2GHZ Athlon and ATi Radeon VIVO. Giving me an excuse to upgrade to Athlon XP and ATi 8500 . So right now I'm trying to decide if I should give him my K7T Turbo Limited too and get a new one for myself or keep mine and get him something new. Do u think the performance gains are worth switching over to the KT266, if not I may stay with Limited its pretty sweet board even if it?s not bleeding edge anymore.

 

[Wind]

Well, the KT266A chipset is significantly faster than KT133A. Noticeable performance increase. If ur fren is not too fussy...give him ur mobo...& u upgrade.

 

[jcmkk]

You could probably do it without reformating, but you will want to be ready to reformat if it starts messing up. I would suggest uninstalling all drivers on your system before you switch your boards. If I were you though, I would just reformat.

 

[CorCentral]

I just recently did the EXACT same thing ..................

Win 2000 sys
Switched an MSI Turbo with an MSI K7t266 Pro-2 & had to do nothing except load a few of the drivers at bootup .

I had a modem , Elsa Gladiac 32mb & a WD 40gig HD when I started up ................(no soundcard for the new machine yet) I did this about a week ago with no problems so far .


Don't know about XP ................ Waiting until they smooth out all of the driver issues . Maybe next year I'll make the ......... LEAP !

 

[passign]

what driver issues?

 

[CStroman]

I went from a KT7A to an 8KHA+. Booted xp into safe mode once, installed proper motherboard drivers, rebooted, works perfectly.

 

[Operandi]

Ok, so far everything sounds encouraging, thanx for info.

And yeah, what driver issues?

 

[chizow]

I did this upgrade a few months ago. Upgraded my A7V133 to an 8KHA+. Was running Win98SE, wasn't a perfect changeover, but it worked. Ended up installing Win2K as a dual-boot on my system, and everything is fine.

The driver issues with WinXP relate to GF3's, Via and the det4 drivers and the AGP controller in the northbridge. I'm no expert on it, but people are having looping issues or something. Check the video forum for more details. I don't like being a beta tester when it comes to my OS, so I usually wait to upgrade to the 2nd newest M$ offering.

Chiz

 

[billyjak]

I just did it with my Abit KR7A Raid board, no problem, using win 98se though.
If you have the latest drivers installed it should work for you.